I have been knitting w/100% wool lately - the Christopher Sheep Farm kind. I love it to knit with - it smells kinda sheepy and it just feels so good.

Well, the thing is, it of course has no stretch. so when I made a watch hat/ribbed winter hat and then washed it, the ribs kinda washed out (if that makes any sense to anyone; it's now really flat instead)

it LOOKS like a dumb hat, but if you wear it, it feels great and doesn't look so bad.

BUT I guess I'm asking - what could I have done to make sure the ribs stayed ribbed. Does anyone out there knit with a strand of elastic when knitting with pure wool?

This is just a guess, but do u think that putting it in the dryer on air will help? The reason I am asking is bc it helped with some cotton yarn I was using this summer...of course, I've never done anything like this with wool & have no idea if it actually addresses your problem...but...what the hay..

What kind of rib are you doing? Is the entire hat ribbed, or just a band? The hats that I knit for Christmas presents all kept their rib after washing. I used a K2P2 rib, but just on the band. Altho, come to think of it, none were 100% wool - all natural fibers, but not pure wool.

I was working on a piece with ribbing that transitions to stockinette - the ribbing called for needles smaller than the stockinnette, which I think is usually because the ribbing is always wider than St st. But I was thinking that maybe you could try going down a needle size? The scientist in me wants to try all the different permutations in gauge swatches.

I am not an expert on this at all, but I want to share a message to you that my friend mentioned a few days ago. She had knit a sweater (100% wool) for me that had a few cables in it. When I was wearing it, she fussed over it a little bit. She felt that she should have blocked more. Then she said that she didn't want to block it too much, otherwise the cables would have gone flat. Perhaps the same idea can be applied here.